Rula Andriessen sat sipping water Sunday, surrounded by women from different generations talking about the community they embody.

“You tend to only see one age group when you’re in college,” said Andriessen, a Kansas University student and Alpha Gamma Delta member.

So Andriessen and a handful of her sorority sisters gathered in the Eldridge Hotel ballroom, 701 Mass., ready to embrace an opportunity they seldom get. Sunday was the first ever Women Build meeting, organized by a group of local women advocacy groups to foster conversations between Lawrence’s diverse community of women.

From KU students to longtime residents, organizer Jennie Washburn said women needed this meeting to find out more about activities in the community. “We don’t know enough about each other,” Washburn said.

The event wasn’t a huge production – just some quick opening comments and piano music – but it was a chance for women from different generations and walks of life to discuss projects over water or wine.

A questionnaire directed much of the discussion. The questionnaire asked about the current needs of women in the community and what programs and services need enhancing, among other things.

Mary Wharff, left, and Robin Gingerich share a laugh before the beginning of the Women's History Month celebration Women

The event was sponsored by KU’s Emily Taylor Resource Center, 100 Good Women, The American Association of University Women and others – all groups with similar goals but often without an avenue for discussion, Washburn said.

“This is completing the circle,” she said. “It’s to strengthen communication between generations.”

At Andriessen’s round table at the back of the ballroom, KU student Amanda McQuin said that to her, the event seemed important, a chance to meet women who could be doing things in the community she had never heard of. Washburn hoped that feeling of importance would last. “I hope this will be the beginning of more of these types of events,” she said.